Lambs to the slaughter: Aston Villa 0 Manchester United 1

Let me get this out of the way right from the start and explain why I'm written 'lambs to the slaughter' in the title. If Marc Albrighton and Barry Bannan are good enough to start alongside Jermaine Jenas and Chris Herd in midfield, against the champions, then they are good enough to start week in week out and should start week in week out.

This was my point when I wrote about these two playing against Swansea - they needed that match to get ready for this one. But that is, assuming they are good enough to start and you know I think they are.

But time will only tell us if the manager thinks they are good enough to start week in week out, or, if they were lambs to the slaughter because this manager is a coward, a clown and clueless.

The thing is, results are irrelevant at the moment because we will lose more than we win and we will only win one out of every three or four. The players are not playing for this manager and can you blame them when the team talk talk before the match or training in the week doesn't focus on keeping the ball, making space and passing.

No surprises with the result

The thing is, nobody is really surprised with the result or the performance from us. We lost and it was dire. I'm a little surprised Manchester United didn't score more but for most of the game we had a lot of people back and we made it, quite typically, difficult.

So, what else am I to write? This will displease some, but I thought Heskey added a different dimension to the game when he came one and I liked it. He isn't our best striker and he isn't a midfielder, but he does drop off and he does link up play and I think our younger players need that type of player, because that is what they are used to playing with.

Can I ask that you vote for your man of the match and be grateful that we started the game in eighth and defeat only moved us down to ninth.